Sorry I’m so late this year on getting this out. If you have any questions, just leave me a note in the Comment section and I’ll be happy to help.

• My Dad’s Birthday
• Valentine’s Day
• Brian’s Birthday
• Our Wedding Anniversary
• Amy’s Birthday

Oh, and you can throw my little sister’s birthday in there as well….

Anyhoo, back to the subject at hand. I am brand new to the whole Guitar Hero franchise, though I’ve been wanting to play it since the first one came out(this is the first version that is available for the Wii). So, being wet behind the ears, I decided to wuss out and start the game on easy. The game has a great song list that can be played in four modes: Easy-utilizes only 3 of the five finger buttons, Medium -adds more notes to the note chart and includes a fourth button, Hard-includes the fifth button and the note combinations are harder still, Expert-just insanely fast note combinations and lots of advanced techniques. See here for a more thorough rundown of the game.

It took some time to get used to the controller, but once I got the hang of it, I cruised through the first 2 concerts with no problems. In fact, I finished the whole game on easy in less than 1 week… scoring at least four or five (out of five) stars on each song(but one… more on that later)!(*patting self on shoulder*) Medium difficulty is a completely different story however. I find myself practicing a song over and over and I can barely get 4 stars on most of them. Strange how adding just one more button to a note chart just changes the whole complexity of a song.

Speaking of complex songs… Slayer’s Raining Blood is one of the songs you can choose to play in the last set of the game. OMG!!! Even on easy, I got booed off of the stage 3 or 4 times before completing it with only 3 stars. The song is just wicked hard and pretty fast. I haven’t even tried it on medium… and probably won’t. the other 3 songs on the set(you need to complete 3 out of 4 songs in the set to advance) are just easier for me to play.

The boys have watched me play the early parts of the game and both have taken an interest in playing it. I let them both play through the tutorial, and though both of them completed it, Will seemed to have a tougher time since his little fingers are having troubles spanning the 3 buttons needed to play in easy mode. But, he fought through A LOT of frustration and continued to practice the songs in the first set…. and as of this past weekend, he had completed both the first and second sets on easy. I have to say that I was quite proud of his determination. He never gave up even though I saw times where he stomped off crying in frustration, and others when he looked ready to throw the guitar controller into the TV. To see him pass the first few songs after all of the practice. The look on his face was worth it.

I’m not sure how much further in the game I am going to let him go. The last few parts of the game are more mature themed than I think he should be a part of. The final stage is actually in Hell and you have to play “Devil went down to Georgia” against a caricature of the red man himself in order to complete the game. I’ll probably end up letting him play up to set 6 or so and then have him move up to the next level. I just think that some of that stuff might frighten him a little.
[tags]holidays, GH3, wii[/tags]

As far as my actual birthday activities… well, the boys had a dance at their school so Amy and I took them to that and we stayed for the duration. I don’t know about you, but what is the point of having a dance at an elementary school? I mean at that age, don’t all boys think all girls have cooties at that age and vice versa? And second, why play a slow song at a dance at an elementary school? Who really expects the kids to slow dance?

However, both boys seemed to have a great time, just running around the gym with their school-buddies. Who knew?

Anyways, afterwards, we came home and I was treated to a surprise ice-cream birthday cake! Now that was excellent! When I was a little kid, my parents used to get us all ice cream cakes for our birthdays. At some time in the past, I had told Amy this and she and Victoria conspired together to get me one this year. What a wonderful treat!

[tags]birthday[/tags]

So Sunday, I decided to go ahead and take William to see the boys and I could visit with the sis for a while. Poor Brian was completely distraught that he couldn’t go, but there was no way that I could risk him getting anyone else sick. I’m pretty sure that he understood… but I’m definitely sure he didn’t like it.

Well, Will and his cousins got along splendidly. They had a great time playing together and no arguments to boot! I think that could be a first with my kids!. Anyway, like I said, I got a chance to visit with my sister, and somehow felt a little better as I didn’t feel like I got enough time to talk with her(or any of the rest of my relatives) over the X-mas holidays.

In other news, I have officially reached PRO status in baseball, tennis, golf, and bowling on Wii Sports. All I have left is Boxing – and I have a looong way to go before I accomplish Pro. You may ask how such a lazy fatass …erm someone with such limited physical activity as myself might be able to score so well on Wii sports in such little time. Well, in a nutshell, it’s practice, practice practice. When we first got the Wii, I told myself that this thing was going to help get me in better shape – nothing amazing or anything, but at least I’ll be up and moving. I promised myself that I would play every other day for at least 45 minutes – and I have done just that… except it’s more like 1-2 hours(at least!). So you figure 1-2 hours every other day for almost a month… that’s a lot of play time!

But it has worked! I’m nowhere near as winded as I was the first time I played a 2 hour marathon of Wii Sports. And my scales told me this weekend that I had been consistently UNDER 200 lbs. for 4 days in a row! Of course, I probably ruined it by eating over at my Mom’s last night! Eating large portions of Filipino cooking just doesn’t go well with trying to lose weight.

Anyway, I figure if I can keep this routine up, and then purchase the Wii Fit game when it is released later this year, I will be well on my way to being a healthier, happier me.
[tags]wii, fitness, health, Brian, Will, cousins, sister, family, sick, wii sports, wii fit[/tags]

It was pointed out that this blog could be a source of motivation since I had recently published our Christmas Holiday Pictures online, and that perhaps some of my photos were not as flattering as some had hoped.

Well ladies, rest easier. I can assure you that these photos were all taken in the worst possible light and at the worst angle by the worst photographer – ever. In fact, the better quality photos were not taken by me at all, but by my youngest son – Will-6.5. I guess he and Victoria are just naturally talented at photography.

I’d also like to take this time to point out a new section in the sidebar of this blog. If you let your eyes wander over to the right – just under the “Recent Comments” section, you will find a new section called “My shared items.” –ok the title sucks. I’ll come up with a better one later. Anyhoo, This section is a list of articles from different blogs I read that I found interesting enough to share with others. They usually range anywhere from technology, to budget living, to personal productivity. The list only shows the 7 most recent articles I’ve shared through my favorite RSS newsreader, google reader, but you can click the “read more…” link at the bottom of the box to check them all out… There’s even an article or two on weight-loss and motivation!

[tags]pictures, Coats, weight loss, motivation, New Year, Will, Victoria, photography[/tags]

Xmas2007

[tags]holidays, christmas, pictures, picasa[/tags]

However, the big hit for the whole family, has been the Wii. This is the first thing that I have seen that has gotten four out of the five family members hooked on it. My Wife is the only one that has been able to maintain any sense level-headedness over the absolute need to play it. Of course, we just think she’s crazy!

Both Brian and Will are having a blast with bowling, boxing, and tennis on Wii Sports. They are also enjoying Super Mario Galaxy and Rayman’s Raving Rabbids(Don’t ask). Victoria has gotten to be quite good at bowling, and she and a few of her friends were absolutely hilarious the other night playing tennis.

And while I am interested in all of the games we have so far, I have spent the majority of my time on the Wii playing Tennis, baseball, bowling, and golf. It has seriously become something of a workout regimen for me. Now most of you that read this know me, and know that I am not the most active person in the world, but spending a few minutes boxing or playing tennis will seriously get your heart pumping.

Another nice thing about how Wii sports was designed, is that it does not care of you are young or old, tall or short – there is at least one sport that you can excel at. For instance, Will and Brian play against each other most of the time and while Brian dominates Will in Tennis and Baseball, he can never seem to get the better hand in boxing. In fact, it’s pretty funny watching both of them shadow-boxing with the television and tiny little Will delivering that knockout punch to his big brother! And while Victoria struggles with her swing-timing in baseball, her form in bowling – and the hook on her ball – is something to see…. And me? Well, it’s not quite fair, because I can play on it all night once everyone else goes to bed. I have reached the PRO level (at least 1000 skill points) on bowling, and tennis, and I am very close to reaching it in golf. However, I am not that great in baseball, and I just right-out suck at boxing.

To say that the Wii is getting a lot of play time is an understatement. It has built in Wi-Fi, so it connects to my wireless network and lets me browse the web, or connect to the Wii Virtual Console Channel and download all of those kewl old skool Nintendo games like Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. They also have some old Sega and Neo-Geo games, like Sonic2 or Street Fighter2. I can also turn it on and it will give me the latest weather forecast and a list of news headlines as well.

Downsides? Well, there are a couple… One thing is to take heed of all the warnings that come up on the screen about making sure that the players have enough empty space around them. More than once has someone got unintentionally whacked by the overzealous player. The other? Well, let’s just say that if you are out of shape, you really need to start off playing fairly conservatively. After the first night of playing, I could barely get around the next day.

Now if I could just get my hands on Guitar Hero 3, Tiger Woods ‘08, and Zack & Wiki…

[tags]wii, games, fitness, sports[/tags]